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((More citations needed|date=February 2019))
((Infobox television episode
| series         = [[Seinfeld]]
| image          = 
| caption        = 
| season         = 8
| episode        = 8
| airdate        = ((Start date|1996|11|14))
| production     = 808
| writer         = [[Alec Berg]] & [[Jeff Schaffer]]
| director       = [[Andy Ackerman]]
| guests         = * [[Wayne Knight]] as [[Newman (Seinfeld)|Newman]]
* [[John O'Hurley]] as J. Peterman
* [[Mark Roberts (TV producer)|Mark Roberts]] as Seth
* Kymberly Kalil as Heather
* [[Michael D. Roberts]] as Ipswich
* Wesley Leong as Clerk
* Christopher Aguilar as Burmese Boy
| episode_list   = List of Seinfeld episodes
| prev           = [[The Checks]]
| next           = [[The Abstinence]]
))
"'''The Chicken Roaster'''" is the 142nd episode of the sitcom ''[[Seinfeld]]''. This was the eighth episode for the eighth season, originally airing on November 14, 1996.<ref name="tvguide">((cite web |title=Seinfeld Season 8 Episodes |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/seinfeld/episodes-season-8/1000137994/ |website=[[TV Guide]] |access-date=December 10, 2021))</ref> The episode's story follows the mishaps which follow when [[Kenny Rogers Roasters]] opens a branch in the characters' neighborhood. The restaurant's [[neon sign]] shines into [[Cosmo Kramer|Kramer]]'s apartment, disturbing first him and then [[Jerry Seinfeld (character)|Jerry]] after they switch apartments, but Jerry opposes Kramer's efforts to shut the restaurant down since a college friend of his is assistant manager at the branch. Meanwhile, [[Elaine Benes|Elaine]] is in danger of being fired from J. Peterman after she misuses the company account for personal purchases.

Much of the episode's plot was inspired by a real-life confrontation between a Kenny Rogers Roasters branch and a neighboring law office, and some scenes were [[Location shooting|filmed on location]] at a real Kenny Rogers Roasters branch.

==Plot==
A [[Kenny Rogers Roasters]] [[restaurant]] opens across the street from [[Jerry Seinfeld (character)|Jerry]]'s apartment building, with a gigantic [[neon sign|red neon chicken]] atop the roof. The light from the sign beams into [[Cosmo Kramer|Kramer]]'s apartment, keeping him from sleeping, so he hangs a banner saying "Bad Chicken" from his window in an attempt to get rid of the restaurant. To escape the red light, Kramer switches apartments with Jerry. [[Newman (Seinfeld)|Newman]] brings over a box of Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken, to which Kramer becomes addicted. Jerry cannot sleep in Kramer's apartment and takes on Kramer's mannerisms, while Kramer becomes more like Jerry. Jerry spots Newman buying [[broccoli]] with his chicken at Kenny Rogers and deduces that Kramer is addicted, since Newman hates broccoli. Jerry confronts Kramer and forces him to move back into his apartment.

Jerry runs into a college buddy named Seth, whom he persuades to blow off a business meeting to have lunch together. Seth becomes assistant manager at Kenny Rogers Roasters after losing his job due to blowing off the meeting.

[[Elaine Benes|Elaine]] is audited by the J. Peterman accounting department after charging personal purchases to the Peterman account, including a [[sable]] [[Ushanka|Russian hat]] for [[George Costanza|George]]. Elaine is able to justify all her purchases as business expenses, except for George's hat, which cost $8,000 and must be returned. George gets a date with Heather, the saleswoman who sold the hat.<ref>((cite web|title=Script, Episode 142 - The Chicken Roaster|website=Seinology.com |url=http://www.seinology.com/scripts/script-142.shtml|access-date=July 30, 2012))</ref> Heather is annoyed by George, so he leaves the hat behind in her apartment as an excuse to come back, planning to win her over with sheer persistence. When George tries to reclaim it, Heather insists the hat is not in her apartment. As an act of revenge, he steals Heather's clock. Jerry directs Elaine to Kramer's friend Bob Sacamano, who sells Russian hats. However, the Peterman accountant is not fooled by the substitute hat, which is made of [[nutria fur]]. To save her job, Elaine sets off for [[Burma]] to seek the approval of [[Jacopo Peterman|J. Peterman]] himself. Peterman agrees to sign off on the purchases, but is interested in seeing the hat and is disturbed by the recent catalog products sold under Elaine’s tenure as president. Jerry shakes the rain-soaked nutria hat while at Kenny Rogers Roasters, covering the food with fur and prompting a shutdown of the restaurant. The neon light goes off, and Kramer puts up a new banner, "Kenny Come Back".

George thinks Heather is wise to his theft of her clock and willing to make a swap for the hat. When they meet on a park bench, however, Heather tells him she wanted to meet because she has become attracted to him. She leaves in disgust when she discovers her stolen clock in George's possession.

==Production==
Seth's blowing off an important meeting to catch up with Jerry was based on a real-life encounter the episode's writers [[Alec Berg]] and [[Jeff Schaffer]] had with a college buddy (also named Seth) while walking the streets of New York City in search of ideas. Berg and Schaffer recounted, "In the middle of lunch he was talking about his new job, how he was part of this panel that had just formed, and they were going to do this new big project. And we were like, 'Oh, that sounds exciting.' He goes, 'Yeah, that's actually... [looks at watch] ...kind of where I'm supposed to be now.' And we realized that he had blown this giant meeting just to see us. And we were really just being polite."<ref name=InsLook>((cite video |title=Seinfeld Season 8: Inside Look - "The Chicken Roaster" |medium=DVD |publisher=[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]|date=2007))</ref> Jerry and Seth's mutual friend Moochie was named after a high school friend of the real [[Jerry Seinfeld]].<ref name=AudioCom>((cite video |title=Seinfeld Season 8: Audio Commentary - "The Chicken Roaster" |medium=DVD |publisher=[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]] |people=[[Jerry Seinfeld|Seinfeld, Jerry]]; [[Andy Ackerman|Ackerman, Andy]]|date=2007))</ref>

Berg and Schaffer had a friend named Billy who was living in Russia for a time and wanted to buy a Russian hat, but had been warned that some of the hats are actually made of [[nutria fur]] which flies everywhere if it gets wet. Berg and Schaffer became interested in working this into an episode, especially since they liked the phrase "rat hat".<ref name=ABergScha/>

The episode's Kramer story was inspired by a real-life confrontation between a New York City branch of [[Kenny Rogers Roasters]] and a neighboring law office.<ref>((cite web |last=Smith |first=Ernie |title=Boom, Roasted |url=https://tedium.co/2017/03/28/fast-food-failures-kenny-rogers-roasters/ |website=Tedium |access-date=27 October 2020 |date=March 28, 2017))</ref> Berg and Schaffer had been wanting to do a story in which Kramer's apartment is bathed in red light for years, getting the idea from an apartment which Schaffer’s brother lived in; the apartment was bathed in red light from [[The Empire Hotel (New York City)|the Empire Hotel]] across the street.<ref name=InsLook/> However, they were unable to develop the idea into a story until they heard of the law office which was hanging up signs like "bad chicken" due to the stench from a Kenny Rogers Roasters venting up into their office.<ref name=InsLook/> The real Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant chain initially balked at this episode, claiming that the scene in which Jerry covers everyone's food with rat fur would be bad publicity. The writers claimed they would alter the storyline, but later admitted that they were lying and had no ideas for a rewrite.<ref name=ABergScha>((cite video |title=Seinfeld Season 8: Audio Commentary - "The Chicken Roaster" |medium=DVD |publisher=[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]] |people=[[Alec Berg|Berg, Alec]]; [[Jeff Schaffer|Schaffer, Jeff]]|date=2007))</ref>

Kramer actor [[Michael Richards]] was virtually a [[vegan]], so during the scene where Kramer eats chicken in bed, he actually only chewed chicken skin, and spit it out into a bucket between takes.<ref name=ABergScha/>

According to director [[Andy Ackerman]], Jerry Seinfeld pulled off his Kramer impersonation as perfectly on the first rehearsal as he does in the finished episode.<ref name=AudioCom/>

Scenes which were filmed but deleted before broadcast include the silhouette of Mr. Marbles (Kramer's doll) approaching Jerry with a knife,<ref name=ABergScha/> George cleaning mustard off his sable hat, and Elaine tracking Peterman by noting Myanmar natives wearing clothes from the J. Peterman catalog.

==Cultural references==
J. Peterman's behavior in Burma is a parody of [[Colonel Kurtz]] in [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' and the film based on that novel, ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.<ref name= JP>((cite web |url=http://www.pcasacas.org/SiPC/22.3/Hersey.pdf |title=It'll Always Be Burma to Me: J. Peterman on Seinfeld |work= Studies in Popular Culture  |publisher= Popular Culture Association |first=Eleanor |last=Hersey |access-date=August 8, 2013))</ref><ref>Van Cassel, Elke. "Getting the Joke, Even if It Is About Nothing: ''Seinfeld'' from a European Perspective," in ''Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain: Revisiting Television's Greatest Sitcom''. Edited by David Lavery and Sara Lewis Dunne. Continuum, 2006, pp. 166-167.</ref>

When Jerry suggests that George approach Heather's door in "a wooden horse" as a better idea, he is referring to the [[Trojan Horse]].

==Critical response==

Linda S. Ghent, Professor in the Department of Economics at [[Eastern Illinois University]], discusses this episode in view of its economic themes, specifically those of externality and [[cost-benefit analysis]]. The [[externality]] here is the Kenny's neon sign: it advertises the restaurant, but it makes Kramer unhappy. But when he gets hooked on the food, he finds that the benefit of the chicken outweighs the cost of the neon glare.<ref>((cite web |author= Ghent, Linda S. |title=Seinfeld Economics: The Chicken Roaster |publisher=Critical Commons |url=http://criticalcommons.org/Members/Ghent/clips/the%20chicken%20roaster.mp4/view |access-date=July 13, 2012))</ref>

Eleanor Hersey, an English professor at [[Fresno Pacific University]], discusses Peterman's company in her 1999 essay "It'll Always Be Burma to Me: J. Peterman on ''Seinfeld''," which begins with her premise:

((quote|The appearance of J. Peterman on ''Seinfeld'' in May 1995 marks the convergence of two significant 1990s media phenomena: the clothing company that redefined the rhetorical conventions of the [[Mail order|mail-order catalogue]] and the television series that redefined the plot conventions of the situation comedy. The influence of these phenomena on one another is striking: while ''Seinfeld'' writers predicted and possibly contributed to the real [[J. Peterman Company]]'s collapse, the presence of Peterman stretched the limits of ''Seinfeld'''s status as a show "about nothing." Although J. Peterman catalogues have inspired many satirical commentaries, the foppish character played by [[John O'Hurley]] may have had the greatest impact on the real J. Peterman's image as an icon of rugged [[masculinity]] and [[Imperialism|world conquest]]. At the same time, Peterman's character compelled ''Seinfeld'' writers to address issues of [[colonialism]] and [[Racism|racial stereotypes]] that the series had avoided in its attempt to maintain a generally "liberal" but largely apolitical status.<ref name="JP"/>))

Hersey examines Elaine's wavering corporate ambitions, her relationship with her haughty, eccentric boss and the male power structure at the company, the seduction of consumers by way of clever advertising, and the significance of Peterman's and Kramer's attitudes toward [[Burma]]. Pointing to Jerry's query to Elaine about what she gained from a trip to Mexico, "Anything you couldn't have gotten tearing open a bag of Doritos and watching ''[[Viva Zapata!]]''?",<ref>((cite web|title=Script, Episode 135 - The Foundation|publisher=Seinology.com|url=http://www.seinology.com/scripts/script-135.shtml|access-date=July 30, 2012))</ref>) Hersey argues that ''Seinfeld'''s silence about racial issues is not entirely silent and does, in fact, constitute a political statement. [[Michael Richards]] won his third and final [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series|Emmy]] for the series with this episode.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*((IMDb episode|0697674))

((Seinfeld episodes))

((DEFAULTSORT:Chicken Roaster))
[[Category:Seinfeld (season 8) episodes]]
[[Category:1996 American television episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Alec Berg]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Jeff Schaffer]]

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